Red Meat and Risk of Breast Cancer
April 11, 2007 by Gloria Gamat
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
A woman’s chance of developing breast cancer is greatly increased by eating red meat.
But don’t we know that already? 
However, a University of Leeds research found a striking association in post-menopausal women.
…those with the highest intake of red meat, the equivalent to one portion a day (more than 57 grams) – run a 56 per cent greater risk of breast cancer than those who eat none.
Women who eat the most processed meat, such as bacon, sausages, ham or pies, run a 64 per cent greater risk of breast cancer than those who eat none.
This recent finding was derived from the eating habits and health of 35,000 women for the past seven years (earlier findings showed that pre-menopausal women who have the greatest intake of fibre have cut their risk of breast cancer in half) and published in the British Journal of Cancer.
I guess we ladies should just stay away from red meat and processed meats (these, I admit is too hard to stay away from!).
Women with estrogen receptor negative breast cancer cut their recurrence rate by 60% if they stayed with a diet in which fewer than 20% of calories were from fat. Nothing else has ever achieved results like that before. Not chemo. Not radiation. If you are ever diagnosed with estrogen receptor negative breast cancer, you can either wait 20 years for another diet intervention study that will give you the proof beyond reasonable doubt, or you can cut your chance of cancer recurrence by 60% by cutting the fat in your diet by 30%.
The hardest of all diet intervention studies have to be dietary intervention studies to reduce cancer. The just published study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute is a watershed. (Chlebowski, R. et al. Dietary Fat Reduction and Breast Cancer Outcome: Interim Efficacy Results From the Women’s Intervention Nutrition Study J Natl Cancer Inst, Dec 2006; 98: 1767 – 1776).
This all goes back to eating a balance diet. Generally if you follow the pyramid closely you can avoid any complications in the future.